Personal Finance 30-Day Challenge #8: Cook more often! (August, 2020) |
- 30-Day Challenge #8: Cook more often! (August, 2020)
- Im 16 and need a bank account but dont want anyone else having access
- 12% interest rate on a car, 33% down payment made ($4,000 on $12,000 car). Help me understand how bad this is?
- 28 yr old dumb divorcé in deep debt
- My recent experience shopping for a mortgage
- I'm 14 and really need to learn the basic of finances. (Reason below)
- What to do with a free car?? Roommate gave me his 98 camry after he moved out and not sure the best thing to do
- I’m 25 and a graduate student who can’t get a credit card
- 72yo, $90k in savings, max social security -- should she buy a house?
- Upside down car loan, any tips? This 19.44% APR is killing me!
- At what point is monthly savings for retirement not worth it after inheritance?
- Don't rent a modem from your ISP. Buy your own.
- Wife and I just made an offer on our first house and they accepted! Now what should we expect?
- Help with parent's mortgage that I cosigned / Forcing sale of home
- First home and I'm paying property taxes as if it were an investment property?
- Necessary to put 20% down?
- Question for Insurance Brokers: Blood Pressure
- Which consumer staple index funds should you buy?
- Living at home-need advice on rent/buy
- Is grad school still a worthy investment?
- 3 Fund Portfolio - Is this all that I need?
- Leaving the US temporarily. What to do with my >$50k savings?
- Refinancing taking longer than estimated
| 30-Day Challenge #8: Cook more often! (August, 2020) Posted: 01 Aug 2020 06:07 AM PDT 30-day challengesWe are pleased to continue our 30-day challenge series. Past challenges can be found here. This month's 30-day challenge is to Cook more often! Two of the biggest budget-killers we see in this subreddit are lots of "wasted" money on eating out and spending too much on groceries. While everyone's situation is different, we want to highlight some steps to help you get started:
Challenge success criteriaYou've successfully completed this challenge once you've done one or more of the following things:
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| Im 16 and need a bank account but dont want anyone else having access Posted: 31 Jul 2020 11:00 PM PDT Im 16 and need a bank account but dont want anyone else having access So I'm about to start a job at pamda express(first job woohoo) and i need to start a bank account asap. The problem is that most places reuire a parent or family member having access to it. i dont trust anyone to have access to the account, does anyone know a way to make them without sombody else having access? If it matters im located in California, because idk different countires and states have different laws? I need a checking and savings for my future plans, going to japan, a more fuel efficient car, and culinary school. So if anyone knows it would be greatly appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Aug 2020 12:16 PM PDT Hey /r/personalfinance, writing an update on this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/i1v5nc/optimal_amount_to_put_down_on_a_car/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share. TLDR basically the title; my girlfriend just got swindled on a god awful interest rate in a huge down payment and I'm not sure how to make her understand truly how bad it is. Please help. EDIT: Thank you all for the advice. One thing to note that's probably important. She's been at her new job for a few months. The dealership owner, a family friend, said that she was only approved by one lender due to this employment history. He's going to "shop around for her on Monday" and get back to her. He advised to refinance after ~6ish months of being at her new job. Regardless, I am still livid that a "friend" let her drive off the lot locked into a rate that high. [link] [comments]  |
| 28 yr old dumb divorcé in deep debt Posted: 01 Aug 2020 09:34 AM PDT I had been a passive member in our financial matters for the length of our marriage, and feel so ashamed of how much deep shit we got ourselves into. First up, I just got a letter from IRS that I owe $150,000 in back taxes from 2011. This is from a large sum of money I earned when I was 19, ($160,000) my brother in law who was in finance convinced me he was the right person to manage my money, and basically "lost" it in the stock market. I asked for paperwork to use it as a capital loss and he never supplied me with it. I was so young and stupid and ignored doing my tax return and it was that thing that kept me up at night. Now I can see past my naivety he probably stole my money but I'm not sure what to do about it now so many years later. This was about a year before I got married. I want to tackle this problem but it is so f*ing scary. Another letter from the IRS says we owe $12,000 for 2017. I was a stay at home mom and he always told me he filed our taxes for us so I'm guessing I'll be able to claim spousal relief for this one. We are in 11K of CC debt. I didn't even realize my husband wasn't paying off our AMEX completely until it didn't work at the grocery store one day. Min payments are being made but my credit score isn't great with this being maxed out (score is 658) I also have a car I can't afford. He bought me a Mercedes as a Valentine's Day present. I look at the paperwork now and scratch my head at this shitty deal and interest rate and wonder why he bought it for me. It is in his name, neither of us can afford the payments and we are underwater about 10K as it was just bought a year and a half ago. Payments are $600/month. I took it in to get routine service and it was $1,200. Fuck. This. Car. I know he also has ~$6K of debt from a car crash with no gap insurance while we were married. I have yet to file for divorce even though we haven't been together since December. We are also both unemployed due to COVID. Are there legal or financial implications for me waiting to file till we get all this debt handled? I worked a really good paying job Feb-March, and was on sick pay for the last 3 months since my son didn't have school. Long story short he has special needs so having someone take care of him all day would be too expensive to justify me working. I filed for unemployment after sick pay ran out and they gave me back pay since April, maybe because my sick pay was so much less than what I was making regularly. So basically I went from having $2500 in my bank account to $18K overnight. Good humans of reddit, please tell me what to do with this money. I'm not sure when I'll have a big lump sum like this again so I want to do it right. The amount of shame and embarrassment I feel for being so stupid with my money makes me sick to my stomach and I want to fix all this so badly but don't even know where to start. [link] [comments]  |
| My recent experience shopping for a mortgage Posted: 01 Aug 2020 03:31 PM PDT I'm buying a home right now and thought I'd share my story just in case someone else can benefit from reading. Since mortgage terms vary depending on these types of factors, I'll give some background: I'm buying a home for $355k with 20% down from the sale of my previous home. My income is above the six figure mark and I have an excellent credit score. Since I had to stretch to afford 20%, I was not looking to buy any points, and I have too many expenses to afford a 15 year loan (I have 4 kids and my wife is a full-time mom). I did a few things to get started. I asked for mortgage terms from my credit union where I'd already been pre-approved, I reached out to a mortgage broker a friend recommended, and I signed up with LendingTree. Others may disagree, but I don't recommend LendingTree. You immediately get bombarded with high volume brokers who try to steamroll you through their process. Among them, the one I ended up talking to was Rocket Mortgage (Quicken Loans). My credit union offers the same terms to everyone, and you either qualify or you don't. The interest rate they offered (3.375%) was decent but had recently climbed. Their fees were low. The local broker offered me 3.25% with similar fees. The Rocket Mortgage agent offered me 3.625% and acted like they were doing me a favor. I told them I had another offer at 3.25%. The lady then tapped on her keyboard for a minute and said she could offer me 3.25%, but she would have to get it approved and she wouldn't give me a fee sheet. Already I didn't want to work with RM, but she offered me $200 less in fees than the competition. I called my local lender and she said she'd offer a lender credit of $200 to match the RM offer. Then she offered me something that made her offer stand out - she said I could add a float down to the contract for no charge. This would mean that, if the rate dropped by at least 0.25% at any time within 15 days of closing, I could accept the lower rate. I signed up with her. She called me yesterday and said she could execute the float down and give me a 3% rate! In the end, just to show the difference between what I ended up with and what I would have got if I went with the first offer from RM, the difference in my monthly mortgage payment is nearly $150! Please shop around and make others compete for your money! It's worth the effort! And ask about a float down! No guarantees there, but I felt great when mine worked out! [link] [comments]  |
| I'm 14 and really need to learn the basic of finances. (Reason below) Posted: 01 Aug 2020 03:15 PM PDT Hello, I'm 14 year old, and in the closet(I'm lesbian). As soon as I turn 18, im planning on moving out of my parents house. I have a few problems with this though. 1.) I am a minor 2.) I'll have to spend the next 4 years making money and saving it 3.) My school has done a terrible job going over finances and stuff (I'm a freshman). They haven't taught anything about debt, paychecks, bank accounts, taxes, etc. And 4.) I need to make sure that my parents cant access the account where I store my money. I love them, but if I were to get outed, they could kick me out, and I would have no money or home. So does anyone have any information on how a minor can have their own account, and how to run an account? Thank you in advance! A lot of people have been telling me to go to this subreddit and ask because, I dont know where to even start. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Aug 2020 01:16 PM PDT Delete if wrong sub... just need some advice here. I am very lucky that my roommate just gave me his car on his way out. He paid $950 for it and it has 230k miles on it. It needs a new radiator, some brake work, new windshield, and exhaust work. I don't know exactly the extent of all the issues and how much it will be to repair everything. Between my bf and I we have a 2015 Camry, Subaru Tribeca, and a 79 dodge camper van. We're planning on moving into our van in January. The subaru is getting the main computer replaced as of now for about $1,100. The van needs some repairs as well and I'm going to need new tires on the 15 Camry. I'm leaning towards giving it a nice quality detailing and seeing what I could get on Facebook marketplace or craigslist. I'm guessing I might be able to get 700 bucks for it. The other option would be to fix everything on it when I have the money and keep it as a backup vehicle and gift it to a family member or sell it on fb and Craigslist. Thoughts ? [link] [comments]  |
| I’m 25 and a graduate student who can’t get a credit card Posted: 01 Aug 2020 04:34 PM PDT Hi all! I would really appreciate some help on all of this. Here's my situation: my whole life I never realized the importance of credit/having a credit card really until I met my current boyfriend about a year ago. I've also been a student basically my whole life, and I'm in graduate school now. When I applied to a Chase card, I got denied. My boyfriend made me an authorized user on one of his cards so it looked like I had good credit on credit karma. When I tried applying to chase again at a later time, I got denied again. Then a nice man at Chase told me to try for a secured credit card. Well guess what, I tried applying to the Bank of America secured credit card and I got denied. This was a couple of weeks ago. Now I don't know what to do. I want to start a HYSA, I don't have much money (around $5,000), but I don't know if this will help or hurt when trying to get a credit card. I work part time and I have loans (about $50,000) and I've been trying to keep saving. I always pay the interest on my loans each month (and it's variable, so it's been nice and low lately). I'll admit I was terrible with my money until about a year ago, but I've been better at budgeting/saving. I want to get a credit card but I also don't just want to keep my savings sitting in my checking account. What should I do? Edit: Thank you everyone for your great advice. For people wondering, my checking account is with Chase! So that's why I started there in the first place. I have some things to ponder now but all of this helps, so thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| 72yo, $90k in savings, max social security -- should she buy a house? Posted: 01 Aug 2020 05:02 PM PDT My mom, 73, has never been responsible with her money. She has always rented. She discovered she had $90k in her 401(k) and receives the maximum social security. Where she lives, housing in West Virginia is very affordable. How can she maximize her savings/finances at her age? Some of my colleagues believe she should buy a house, possibly with cash, to reduce her monthly expenses. While houses can be money pits, I lean towards this idea. But wanted to run it by this forum before talking to her about it. Or any others. Please advise. [link] [comments]  |
| Upside down car loan, any tips? This 19.44% APR is killing me! Posted: 01 Aug 2020 03:30 PM PDT 2015 Jeep Cherokee Paid $12,730 so far Current balance $15,076 Car listed price was $14,000 + GAP + Fee's, etc.. 19.44% APR $19,613 Total Loan $12,463 Interest Opened Aug 21, 2018 Est Payoffdate March 2024 66 Month Term $486 Monthly 48 payments made 43 payments left 100% on time payments So a few years ago my daily driver broke down and I had nothing saved. I was extremely desperate to get a new car for work, and it had to be able to carry a ladder. So that limited my choices and I couldn't afford anything on 1 paycheck, so I shopped around and got approved at Drivetime. Knowing what I do now, I really regret that... The interest on the loan they gave me is insane. I put $1000 down on a $14,000 2015 Jeep Cherokee. I immediately wanted to get rid of it once I noticed my monthly payments were more interest than principal... But I needed the car for work so I didn't have a choice. Now a few years later, the loan is really upside down and I have a company car. I rarely use the Jeep since I have a company car, but I still have to make payments and pay insurance on the Jeep.. I really don't know what to do at this point, I have 43 payments left and most of my payments are 65%+ interest... I pay $245 twice a month and hardly any goes towards principal. On top of the $486 monthly I pay $180 for car insurance on a car I don't really even use at this point. I thought about selling the car, but then id still owe $7,000 to the loan I assume? Just really depressing to see the balance at $15,076 after paying $486 a month for 2 years when the car was listed at $14,000... I ended up getting GAP and then other fee's took the loan higher. My credit is only 618, so I don't think I quality to refinance to a better deal. I tried a few months ago for a 12-13% interested refinance and was declined. Any ideas? [link] [comments]  |
| At what point is monthly savings for retirement not worth it after inheritance? Posted: 01 Aug 2020 05:39 PM PDT I'm 29 years old, make $70,000 a year, and my only debt is less than $20,000 in low interest rate student loans (in no rush to pay off). Before my mom passed away and I got an inheritance, I was savings around $18,000 (max HSA, roth IRA, and sizable 401k contribution) a year which turns out to be around $1,500 a month. This is about what a very nice two bedroom apartment runs in my city! After my inheritance (inherited IRA and brokerage), my net worth is around $400,000, with plenty of time for compounding in the stock market to really take off. I could continue to keep my head down and live a frugal life where i constantly contribute to all of my tax-advantaged accounts. Or I could significantly ease up on my personal savings rate, and let compounding interest take off on a sum of money I hadn't imagine having before I was 40. Any thoughts about why I should or should not continue savings as strictly as I have been? [link] [comments]  |
| Don't rent a modem from your ISP. Buy your own. Posted: 01 Aug 2020 08:06 PM PDT In my area, renting a modem from an ISP costs 15 dollars per month. A comparable modem costs about 70 dollars, and will last years. 15 dollars per month comes out to 180 dollars per year. If that were put into investments with a 6% annual return rate, after 40 years, that would turn in a little over 28k before taxes. The greater lesson here is that sometimes, shelling out a little more money can prevent rolling costs, e.i. buying nice shoes that will last far longer than cheaper shoes, buying shelf stable ingredients like rice or pasta in bulk, etc. [link] [comments]  |
| Wife and I just made an offer on our first house and they accepted! Now what should we expect? Posted: 01 Aug 2020 05:24 AM PDT My wife and I have been married for a year, early 30s, living in Ohio. We made an offer on our first house and it was accepted. Now what should we expect? We were already pre approved for a loan. We are working with a good realtor who is the uncle of a friend, so we trust him and he's been great. What kinds of costs should we expect in the short term? In the long term? Obviously maintenance on the house, but what sort of costs and processes are not obvious come with home ownership? What is some good advice for financial planning around the new home and loan? Fortunately we are fairly frugal and manage our finances well. This home loan will be the only debt we have other than student loans. We would just love to hear what wisdom this sub can offer. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Help with parent's mortgage that I cosigned / Forcing sale of home Posted: 01 Aug 2020 06:12 PM PDT I've asked for advice a few times in the past but - to summarize: When I was 18 my stepdad asked me to consign the mortgage. (I had good credit from a small credit card I always paid off and a steady job). I said yes because my family would end up homeless otherwise. (They truly likely would have) I am the oldest of six kids and my younger brother had a life long disability that rendered him bed bound and on a ventilator so the idea of putting him through that was too much and my stepdad used that to his advantage. Turns out, I was the primary borrower and HE was the cosigner. They loan was for 150K and it has been fifteen years. They've got the balance down to $113K during that time because they've only made 28% of payments on time. Needless to say, my credit has been trashed. I've managed because I have had a VERY steady job (over ten years at one place) and I buy everything in cash. However, I dont feel comfortable getting married to my current partner as a result of me not wanting him burdened with a potential foreclosure and the baggage that comes with me financially and our being tied legally. Thats beside the point... Two years ago they were 6K passed due. The promise they made was when my youngest brother graduated college they would sell. Again, I didn't want anyone homeless. My mom works 70 hours a week at a liquor store/grocery store and my stepdad doesn't work other than odd jobs. She doesn't get overtime or days off and she won't do anything about it. She accepts that "its her lot." I ended up paying off the 6k to bring them back from foreclosure so again, they wouldn't be homeless. My young nephew now lives with them as well, adding to the problem. My paying off the mortgage was probably a mistake but I was desperate for a good credit card for the first time... ever. This now brings me to today: My brother has graduated high school. They are now saying they need "two more years" because he didn't want to live at school. (he's a hermit and doesn't like to go in public so he's staying at home.) Despite many fights, they've explained that they "Just can't right now." On top of this, I found out that because of covid, they decided to sign up for a forbearance on their mortgage back in March. Mom has still been working just as much. That extra income has just... vanished. They will owe 8K in thirty days. My mom apparently knows "nothing about this" because my stepdad pays the mortgage and she thought they were only going to owe three months worth. Their last payment was in February. I know this because I "hacked" into their mortgage website which is really just my mortgage. At this point, I'm just really angry. Really, really angry. I want to force a sale but at this point knowing that they owe literally 8K - is that even possible?? On top of this, there is a 35k lien not he house for my mom. They owe 15 years worth of electric bills which they could never afford because they were so high due to my brother's disability and constant need for ventilators, oxygen machines, etc. They said they couldn't get a discount unless it was in my brother's name and they needed a state ID to set it up. (Honestly this sounds like BS and I wouldn't be surprised if they lied about this.) Is there anything I can do? Should I just let the sinking ship go down? I know I'd likely be liable to pay anyways in a foreclosure. TL;DR: talked into cosigning montage for parents fifteen years ago. ruined credit. they now owe 8k at the end of a forbearance in one month. Want to force sale but dont know my options. Note: this is in Massachusetts. I live in Oregon. [link] [comments]  |
| First home and I'm paying property taxes as if it were an investment property? Posted: 01 Aug 2020 07:44 PM PDT Hi! I recently had an offer accepted to buy my first home. Everything has been going well so far, but I just recently found out that I will have to pay a little over double the property taxes the first year I am living there. This is because the owners were not using it as their primary residence, so they were paying property taxes as if it were an investment. I called the assessor's office, and they are telling me that you can only rezone properties July 1st of every year when assessments are due and that I will be responsible for the taxes as it was zoned this year. Its not a deal breaker, but it seems completely unfair that I will be responsible for almost $4200 in taxes when it should be around $1700. Has anyone heard of this before? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Aug 2020 07:25 PM PDT Do you have to put 20% down on a home? I know it's considered ideal but in my case if I did that I'd have nothing left over for emergencies etc. [link] [comments]  |
| Question for Insurance Brokers: Blood Pressure Posted: 01 Aug 2020 08:21 AM PDT I had a 20 yr term life that expired last year and I had to renew. For the past 10 yrs I've been fighting with high blood pressure, was on too many meds and it still wouldn't come down. Premium for renewal was pretty high and they said it was because of my blood pressure (even tho I was 120/80 when they came out to measure it, they pulled my Dr records and went by that). Then a few months ago I felt some chest pains (not a heart attack), went to the ER, they found some blockage in my LAD (not 100% blocked), put in a stent, and now my blood pressure is crazy low. So my insurance question is: does it make sense to reapply for term life to get my payments down? If so, how long to wait (stent was put in end of May, new insurance policy started last Oct)? I don't know what contributes to price, so I don't know if stent + low blood pressure is better than high blood pressure but no heart "incident", or if it'll all be a wash. TIA. [link] [comments]  |
| Which consumer staple index funds should you buy? Posted: 01 Aug 2020 07:09 PM PDT Which consumer staple index funds do you recommend I buy? How often do you have to re-balance the consumer staple index fund? Can you set it and forget it kind of thing? What percentage of my stock portfolio should be on consumer staple index funds? Thank you so much. [link] [comments]  |
| Living at home-need advice on rent/buy Posted: 01 Aug 2020 12:23 PM PDT I am early 20's living at home with 33k debt, 25k in bank and 67k salary. Rent around here is 800-1000 for one bedroom but I am also debating buying something under 130k around the area. I am not sure what to do but would like to be out by Nov. [link] [comments]  |
| Is grad school still a worthy investment? Posted: 01 Aug 2020 02:06 PM PDT For the record: I did my bachelor's in business administration and didn't get far. My master's is going to be in cyber security. I just paid for my first semester of grad school. I believe I'm still within the deadline for refunds. Now I did give this some thought, but every now and then I feel a fleeting sense of doubt in my mind. As the semester starts, it's hitting me now more than ever and I'm thinking of getting a tuition refund. Here's what went through my thought process:
Thoughts? I think my major concerns include taking a big chunk out of my savings for this. Should I invest my money into property or stocks instead? or should I leave that money in the savings account in case of emergency? [link] [comments]  |
| 3 Fund Portfolio - Is this all that I need? Posted: 01 Aug 2020 01:47 PM PDT Hi everybody, I have been posting here recently and have received some awesome advice on backdoor and mega backdoor roths. The time has now come for me to seek advice on a 3 fund portfolio. At present, I have $0.5M in cash due to recent bonus/retention payouts. Once I back out a few large upcoming purchases (house in the next 12 months, wedding & honeymoon within the next 24 months, emergency fund, taxes, other short term large expenses) I am left with $0.25M that I want to invest into my Fidelity account. Here is what I am thinking: FSKAX - 70% - $168k FTIHX - 25% - $60k FXNAX - 5% - $12k I am 32 y/o male, and my partner is 30. We both currently max out 401k's, HSA's, backdoor roths and recently started with a mega backdoor. Fidelity tried to get us to use their managed services and recommended over 20 funds. That's when I started to read more and more and realized that I could do this myself. With the above in mind, is there any advice that you guys would give me, or would you say that this is a good approach? Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Leaving the US temporarily. What to do with my >$50k savings? Posted: 01 Aug 2020 11:40 AM PDT Hey folks, due to some visa problems, I have to leave the US temporarily within the next two weeks. If everything goes well, I will be back to start my PhD in person soon (and meanwhile carry on the PhD work remotely). I have >$50k worth of savings with me right now sitting idle (or earning an annual 1.05% in an online savings account, accumulating monthly). While, it is not a great amount of money, I'd like to do something with it rather than nothing. Where could I put this money to good use for myself in the hopes I return back to the US in the near future? If it matters, I'm moving back to India. The only option I've considered right now is to move a considerable chunk back to India. [link] [comments]  |
| Refinancing taking longer than estimated Posted: 01 Aug 2020 06:06 PM PDT Not sure if this belongs here, so please let me know if elsewhere is more appropriate. We went to a federal credit union to refinance our mortgage. We locked in our rate i think 44 days ago. Our application says that the rate expires on Aug 2 (45 days closing). I've been asking for updates from our loan officer. He told me this week that our application has been approved for final review but so has a bunch of other applicants' applications. And we're all in the same situation waiting for closing. Is this normal? Should I be concerned about anything happening to our locked rate/application? Any loan officers out there know whether they're BSing us or is there really that many applications for refinancing? I feel like if this was a purchase (not refinancing), a bank really couldn't do this. We only bought a year and a half ago and the banks were very efficient. [link] [comments]  |
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